The Defensive Dearth

Varane United MadridAs the new season approaches, all the elite teams are strengthening their squads with quality additions, especially in attack, but almost all of them are struggling with defensive solidity.
The teams want to add more steel to their back line, but the problem is that there seems to be a lack of top quality defenders around the world.
Clubs have Top-Class Academies but only a few of them can produce a gem of a defender(Center Half). All of them are fighting for the signature of a few selected individuals. For example, as most of us know, in the summer of 2014, Raphael Varane was being “chased” by Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, PSG, etc.
We talk about Mats Hummels, Matija Nastasic, Kurt Zouma, Raphael Varane, Marquinhos, et al. But apart from these few names, there aren’t a lot of young and talented center halves as of now.
Mats Hummels DortmundLet’s talk about England for a second here. There are young talents like John Stones, Carl Jenkinson, Calum Chambers, Luke Shaw, etc. but almost all of them have flattered to deceive. They do have the potential to be world beaters in their position but they need to be conditioned well and trained properly.
As the emphasis moves more and more towards the attacking aspect of the game, we are losing focus of the equally important defensive side of it.
This issue is pretty dreary.
I am not saying that we are completely neglecting it but the issue needs to be addressed a bit more seriously. I believe that with a proper strategy, we can resolve this issue with relative ease.
P.S. I would really love to see “No Nonsense” defenders like Carles Puyol, Sol Campbell, Fabio Cannavaro but are there are not many like them left in the game.

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